BAE's Diverse MRAP Orders

The MRAP program has been a long road for BAE Systems. The firm's designs, depth of experience in this area, and production capacity had made them an early favorite to take a significant piece of the MRAP competition. By June 20/07, however, contracts had been issued for 3,266 Category I & II MRAP vehicles, fully 42% of a the program's planned 7,774 orders.

Force Protection had racked up orders for 1,780 Cougar vehicles, and Navistar had come out of the tests at Aberdeen with orders for 1,216 of its MPV joint design with Plasan Sasa. BAE, meanwhile, sat in 4th place with orders for just 90 vehicles – 2.8% of the total. It had to be a humbling experience for the firm that went into 2004 as the world leader in the field.

BAE still has some catching up to do, but recent contracts have put them solidly back into the competition – including more SOCOM orders, and a surge of orders for its larger RG-33L. DID has all of the details…

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